More info: Find the complete memo on the comprehensive housing policy here.

Boulder has plenty of housing for the well-to-do and concrete policies to provide more housing for those making less than $50,000. What it doesn't have are policies to promote housing for those in the middle, those making between $50,000 and $150,000, officials said in a memo to the City Council.

Households in that income range are shrinking as a percentage of Boulder's population.

In 1999, 43 percent of Boulder's households earned between $50,000 and $150,000. In 2011, it was 37 percent, the memo said. During the same time period, the number of households earning more than $200,000 increased 34 percent. There has also been an increase in the number of those earning less than $50,000.

The City Council members are scheduled to discuss a comprehensive housing policy Tuesday night. The question before them is whether the city should look at its policies, including density and zoning, to see if it can encourage more housing to be built for that income range.

The lack of affordable housing has implications for other city policy goals, including reducing how much people drive. Between 50,000 and 60,000 people drive into Boulder to work every day, and three out of five Boulder workers don't live in the city.

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In the memo, housing and human services officials warned that the city does not have the capacity to create housing for all those workers, if they even want to live in Boulder.

"It is clear that middle-income people who work in Boulder and desire to own a detached home are unlikely to find that home in Boulder," the memo said. "It is also clear that lower-income renters who work in Boulder have a very difficult time finding affordable places to live in the city. In any case, the city does not currently have the capacity to add enough housing units for all of the in-commuters even if those in-commuters wanted to live in Boulder."

Under current zoning, the city has the capacity for roughly 6,300 new housing units, the vast majority of those as apartments or townhomes, the memo said.

Challenges to developing the land to capacity include fragmented land ownership, platting challenges created by easements, right-of-way and zoning constraints.

"There are no solutions to Boulder's affordability challenges," the memo said. "Demand to live in Boulder will always outstrip the housing supply. However, there are opportunities to respond more effectively."

Policies put in place now could shape what gets built for decades to come.

Acting Housing Division Manager Jeff Yegian's recommendation if the City Council wants to develop a middle-income housing strategy would be first to do a more comprehensive study of the city's housing needs and the housing choices of people who work here.

The analysis done so far has identified several issues:

Boulder is losing households that make between $50,000 and $150,000 a year and gaining households that make more than $200,000 and less than $50,000.

There is no evidence that Boulder is losing families with children, but families with children increasingly tend to be high-income.

Ownership opportunities tend to be for expensive detached single-family homes and for condos or townhomes that are more affordable but less attractive to families.

The rental market is very tight, with few vacancies.

There are more jobs than housing in the city, and in-commuting numbers are not likely to decrease significantly.

Boulder will need more housing if it is to address affordability concerns, but the high price of land and limited opportunity for new development will be challenges.

Yegian said further analysis will help the city staff understand the needs in more detail. For example, as baby boomers age, city officials don't have a good grasp on whether tomorrow's seniors will be low-income and need housing assistance or well-off and able to pay for their own housing.

City officials also need a better understanding of how people make housing choices in a regional context, Yegian said. If it turns out that many two-income households are choosing to live in Broomfield or Westminster because one person in the household works in Boulder and the other works in Denver, those households would be unlikely to live in Boulder even if housing were available.

The city's current data on attached housing also doesn't distinguish between townhomes, possibly with yards, and condos. Those types of housing tend to appeal to distinct demographics.

Once the city has a better idea of the housing needs, "Then we can look at how land-use codes and development regulations influence -- either positively or negatively -- the creation of that kind of housing," Yegian said.

Density is likely to be part of that discussion, though that could take many forms.

"On density, we're hoping to get some good direction from council," Yegian said. "Density can be viewed in a number of different ways. Some people view it as how many buildings are being created, and others view it as how many housing units. Or would we allow more people to live in each unit?"

Barbara Green, Community Foundation civic forum associate director, said even in a regional context, there is a lack of affordable housing for both low- and middle-income people.

According to data collected for the latest trends report from the Community Foundation, 65 percent of Boulder renters pay more than a third of their income in rent, compared with 53 percent nationwide and 59 percent in Boulder County.

A third of homeowners also find themselves "house poor," paying more than a third of their income toward their mortgages, and the median price for a single-family home in Boulder is $550,000. Longmont is the only city in Boulder County with a median home price under $300,000.

Green said she hopes the city continues to work on providing more housing for lower-income people, as well.

"While it's certainly important to provide more housing for middle-income families, who may struggle to purchase a home here, it's also important that we provide more housing for lower-income people, as well," Green said. "There are a lot of jobs in this city that don't pay very high wages, making it hard for the people who hold them to live here."

Ken Hotard, senior vice president of the Boulder Area Realtor Association, said the organization is following the public discussion closely. Traditionally, BARA has advocated that the city let the market determine the price of most housing and reserve its resources for the most vulnerable.

However, it's time for the city to take a comprehensive look at its policies and see how it might adapt to changing demographics, including an aging population that will have different housing needs and the lack of middle-income housing, Hotard said.

"The memo identifies a number of critical issues, including that the days of being able to provide single-family, middle-income housing are over," he said. "I think a lot of us have known that intuitively for a while."

If the City Council is interested in doing more study and developing a middle-income housing strategy, the city staff will return with more data in October and develop specific policies for 2014.

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